Yuhs know, like trying to figure out what those
Alternate Red rubber’s gona do at Gateway?
Having arduously laboured over 19 finely Honed No
Fenders stories for your reading pleasure whilst on Holiday. Or was it 20 or 21
finely honed stories with a Dull knife including a ridiculously long “Canned” The
Passenger Book review for future posting, before departing July 25th? Hmm, Me
Thinks it was Simon Pagenaud’s previous Car number 22…
Naturally, it’s taken me a little while to get
back in the swing of things. Having effectively spent a month away from Ye All
consuming Keyboard!
Needing to knock off the rust, Especially since
my No Fenders traffic count’s dropped so deeply ever since thee Gory Month ‘O May,
WTF! Apparently having been “punished” by Google for placing a warning upon one
of my 4,500+ Posts! Which naturally it’s El Stupidio Blogger platform wouldn’t
let me “See” what post this was, meaning I’ve got Zero clue what the warning
was for? Not to mention being the first time ever in some nearly 17 Freakin’
years of Blogging! But I digress…
Thus making me think of a verse in a very
creative song simply called Hi Ren. Where the Singer/Songwriter notes how He’s
not chasing Numbers, Statistics or Stats. He isn’t chasing Commercial success. Never
writes Hooks for the radio and is content with the Groovy music He’s creating
for Himself. With the people who find it respecting Him, which gives Him a
purpose since Life’s been tough…
As the Hi Ren by Ren song clocks in at Nine minutes,
20 seconds long. But is most definitely worth a listen!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_nc1IVoMxc
Naturally I’ve had the PME HB’s since returning
from another Oh, so wonderfully Fantastic 21 Days Camping Safari with Tacoma
Bureau Chief Mary Ellen and Hang 10’ Hilo! Making me think of Ren’s sardonic
She Sells Sea Shells by the Seashore…
While naturally, reality has a nasty habbit of
Hitting one upside Thar Noggin’ whenever feeling overly content about life!
Being a wickedly Hard task master, She’ll quickly knock Ye Wind outta your
Sails El Pronto!
Case in point, was the three items ranging from
mundane to overly important that struck Mwah upon thoust return home. Starting
with hearing the Splat! Of the scoop of jam I didn’t know I’d dropped on the
floor until I stepped ont it in my slippers as it went Squish! To the brand new
belt my Dad had purchased me who’s stiching completely dissolved and left me
with the buckle in my Hand! To my Fucking Bank screwing up again and putting another
incorrect mailing address on my monthly rent Cheque!
Why am I lamenting Y’all with this? Whale’, if
you’re one of my few loyal readers, then you already know I’m Blind! And
suffered from the nasty eye disease simply known as “RP”, or Retinitis
Pigmentosa.
For which there’s just been a very interesting
sounding book written upon the subject of Retinitis Pigmentosa and the effects
of it’s leading to Blindness by Andrew Leland, who suffers from said disease
titled The Country of The Blind.
Leland (whose legally
Blind and only has six percent vision) likens his vision to the view you might
get by looking through a toilet paper tube or a keyhole.
“It's really a narrow
aperture that I'm pointing around," he says. "Imagine having that
toilet paper tube strapped to your head and trying to walk down the street;
there's this whole field of things that you don't see that you really ought to,
like curbs or toddlers or dogs or fire hydrants.”
For which I haven’t listened to the Show Archive
yet. When Andrew Leland was the featured guest upon the August 8th edition of
NPR’s Fresh Air, which you can listen to below.
I bring All of this up simply since although I’ve
long given up upon the NFB, aka National Federation of The Blind. Having long
ago attended monthly meetings of it’s Downtown Seattle Chapter. The NFB’s mantr
is for Blind people to live Independently, which your Humble No Fenders Scribe
Tomaso’s been doing for many decades now, Aye Karumba!
As Andrew Leland’s brilliant description of
what living with RP is like above should paint what’s not a so rosy picture for
Mwah. Since it’s truly a bizarre experience in life to go around not being to
be able to See what anybody, or anything looks like!
And how truly difficult it’s for a Blind person
to live alone, without anybody supporting them!
As I had the most Bizarre experience at my
local Freddy’s Grocery store a a few months ago now. When a total stranger got
up close ‘n personal with me. When a man said seriously, I’ve got a question
for you. How does a Blind person take a Shower? Seriously, you’ve gotta be Bleepity-Bleep
kidding me!
AnyHoo’, I’ve probably lost my story’s point by
now, Eh? Other than life’s difficult for Blind people. Although life being Hard
in general came back full circle to Mwah when recently at Fred Meyer’s grocery
shopping. Noticing how my normally Gregarious Cashier Dave was being abnormally
Quiet as He did my groceries.
So I said to Dave, you’re pretty quiet today, you must be concentrating, Eh? To which Dave paused and said yeah, I guess you could say I’m concentrating. Before Dave paused again and then told me He’d just buried His Son who’d died from an unexpected Heart Attack…
